


Crash

by kiriya



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Wedding, season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-22 23:37:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6097627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiriya/pseuds/kiriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spike crashes Buffy's wedding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crash

**Author's Note:**

> Hehe, the title is kind of a play on "Crush." Geddit?

The reception was going marvelously, but Buffy Summers was already exhausted. She'd spent the entire night conversing with friends of her mother and Riley’s Iowan family, who hadn’t met her before this week. The day had gone by in a blur. Absorbing new faces, and regurgitating the same stale jokes and small talk, flashes of Willow’s red hair and Xander’s dope-y grin in-between. She hardly got to share her special day with any of her long-time friends. She couldn’t help but feel like that was a metaphor or something. The beginning of the end.

Buffy danced with some, including Xander and her Watcher, who had walked her down the aisle like she promised during her previous engagement. Her own father, predictably, was nowhere to be seen. She was currently engaged in more dancing with one of Riley’s uncles (Thank god for Slayer stamina). Buffy's partner left her, and without missing a beat, her hands were ceased by cold ones.

She was eye-level with a very familiar smirk.

“What are you doing here?” She seethed.

“Aren't you happy to see me, kitten?” Spike asked with a chuckle, as the couple began rotating  across the dance floor. “I got all dolled up just for you. I think I clean up rather well.”

 _The red bowtie and matching vest really brings out_ the _blue in his eyes_ , Buffy’s inner valley girl interjected. The ensemble was very him. “How did you get in here?” He

“How did you get in here?”

He huffed as if offended. “Please. Half of these corn-fed tossers wouldn't know a vampire if I bit right them on the arse.“

 

"Well, it's not like you're subtle, with the blood red and the hair that hurts my eyes. Image-obsessed, much?"

Buffy felt herself relax as she slipped out of wedding mode, and became full-on quippy. Melted into her and Spike’s typical scathing banter was easy, and for the first time that night she felt like herself, not a shiny robot.

Spike knew it, too. He had a genuine smile, not the typical Spike smirk or grin that begged her to hate him.

"You look stunning." He said, with the same sincerity as her mother and Riley. Buffy could feel her cheeks getting hot under his intense blue gaze. "The white doesn't suit you, though."

 

"Please, don't make a scene,” She begged. "I've already had enough of that this week."

 

"Yeah, heard Peaches was in town. I blame him for all this, putting all these ideas about a normal life in your brain. You're not normal. You're the Slayer. He was worried about you growing up and becoming all wrinkly without him, when it's a miracle you've made it this far. Everyone knows it too, that's why they're not questioning it."

"Stop," she pleaded, and he did.

But he spoke up after a moment, “Let’s go, Slayer. Leave this place with me. This isn’t you, love. That bloody ponce doesn’t know you… Doesn’t see you… Has you up on a pedestal, thinks you’re his trophy wife. But you’re so much more… You’re the bleeding Slayer, for Christ’s sake...”

She shook her head and laughed self-deprecatingly. “You don’t get it, Spike. The Slayer is always up on a pedestal, even by her friends. They expect so much of me… They think I’m this unstoppable, untouchable force, but I’m not. I mess up; I get scared. I’m just a normal person, like them, and I want normal person things.” She paused for a moment and looked him in the eye. “You do it, too. You say you love me, Spike, but you don’t know me at all. This is the first real conversation we’ve ever had. Just because you feel like you’re 'drowning’, just because you can’t stop thinking about me, it doesn’t mean you’re in love.”

“And what you feel for Riley, that means you are?”

She didn’t answer. Their relationship was supportive, healthy. Around him, she felt warm, secure, and at peace. It wasn’t sustained by blazes of passionate, and he never made her feel like she might choke on the intensity of her feelings.

“Buffy, I can’t let you do this…”

“It’s already done.”

The ceremony was during the day, and their vows had already been exchanged. He drew in an unnecessary breath, and said nothing else, defeated (though she was sure this was far from over). Buffy let herself be slowly led in circles around the dance floor, relaxing, letting them both savor this moment, before the reality of her commitment set in.  
  
“Somebody’s stolen my necklace!” 

“Where’s my cigarettes!?”  
  
“My watch is missing!”  
  
So much for relaxing. Spike became as stiff as pole. His pale eyes were shot wide open by the declarations of the crowd. He’d never been cool-under-fire. Buffy immediately put two and two together, and the moment was gone. Her sharp glare from the beginning of the night returned.  
  
“I’d hate to cut this short, love, but-”  
  
“ _Go._ ” Buffy hissed.  
  
He took her hand, and kissed it.  
  
“I’ll be around.”


End file.
